When Ittai Hershman and Linda Rich learned of the rocket attack that took the lives of 12 children and teens in a Druze town in northern Israel, they knew exactly where they needed to go: Gazala’s, the only Druze restaurant in the city.
“We want to support the community and it’s very difficult to do in New York. This is kind of the standout landmark in which to be able to do that,” said Hershman, an Upper West Sider who came with Rich to the neighborhood spot for dinner on Sunday evening.
“It meant so much to us when people did something tangible and stood up for us, and we want to stand up for them because they are a part of the society that we are in,” said Rich. The couple said they both have relatives in Israel.
The couple were not the only ones to think of the restaurant on 81st Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Gazala Halabi, the restaurant’s owner and head chef, said many customers and friends in New York reached out to offer support throughout the day on Sunday.
“My phone didn’t stop ringing,” she said, “even from people I don’t know.” One customer even stopped by to drop off flowers.
Halabi’s restaurant makes no secret of its support for Israel: Multiple Israeli and Druze flags hang in the interior alongside photos of Israeli soldiers. The restaurant was vandalized several times earlier this year, with perpetrators smashing the glass door, scribbling “Free Palestine” on the restaurant and leaving a slew of 1-star reviews on Google.
An Israeli flag and multi-colored Druze hang proudly at the entrance of Gazala’s, next to a poster about Gazala’s history and the Druze community. (Ben Sales)
Large crowds of Jewish and Israeli New Yorkers showed up in response, and the restaurant has become a destination for Israelis and their supporters. “The whole block was filled with people and [Israeli] flags coming to support,” Halabi said at the time. “I’ve never felt as strong as that day.”
Halabi said she doesn’t plan to put up a formal memorial for the Druze victims of the Hezbollah attack in her restaurant. But she has felt the familiar embrace of her patrons.
“It really feels like a family,” she said. “I really feel, again, like I’m not alone.”
Gazala Halabi is the owner and executive chef of Gazala’s, an Israeli-Druze restaurant that was the target of anti-Israel attacks. (Julia Gergely)
The Druze are a small religious and ethnic minority in the Middle East, with a population of about 1 million spread across communities throughout Syria, Lebanon and Israel. In Israel, Druze communities comprise less than 2% of the population and tend to be patriotic and serve in the military.
The site of the attack, Majdal Shams, is in the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered from Syria in 1967. While many of the Druze there have retained Syrian citizenship, Israelis are treating the attack as a national tragedy.
Halabi, who is from Daliyat al-Carmel, a town near Haifa in Israel’s northwest, said everyone in her Israeli family is shaken by the attacks.
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“The Druze are a small community,” she said. “So there is no one that you don’t have a connection to. My grandma has sisters and brothers in Majdal Shams. They are OK, but still, it’s scary.”
Halabi was in Israel on Oct. 7 and has been back four times since. She is planning another trip for September.
“I feel with this situation and the war, I want to be there more. I need to be there,” she said. Though she’s lived in New York since 2001, she said she is considering moving back to Israel at some point in the future.
“I’m lucky to have two homes. New York and Israel. Here, I have my business. There, I have my family and the country that I grew up in,” she said.
In June, the restaurant put up a poster board near its entrance that tells her story and explains what the Druze community is.
“You’ll see me put the flags outside,” she said. The restaurant has a handful of outdoor tables lining the sidewalk on Amsterdam Avenue. “The more things happen, the more I want to speak out.”
Rich said that seeing the Israeli and Druze flags at the restaurant makes it “feel like home.” She added, “It feels like we belong. They belong to us and we belong to them.”
Rich wasn’t the only one to head to Gazala’s in the wake of the deadly attack on Majdal Shams. Yael Bar Tur, an Israeli social media strategist who lives in New York, tweeted a picture of herself draped in a Druze flag at the restaurant on Sunday.
“NYC- If you can stop by Gazala’s on 81 & Amsterdam, please do!” she wrote. “I came to pay my respects after 12 children from the Druze community were killed by a Hezbollah rocket.”
Jason Haber, who works as a real estate agent in South Florida and New York, also posted on social media encouraging people to visit the restaurant to show support following the Hezbollah attack.
“It’s important to highlight a restaurant like this, because it’s symbolic of the best of the United States and of Israel,” Haber told the New York Jewish Week.
Haber, who splits his time between the Upper West Side and Boca Raton, said he recently ate at Gazala’s and plans to come again when he’s in the city later this week.
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“In many ways, Gazala’s an important symbol of what Israel stands for, because not every community in Israel is Jewish, but every community is Israeli. That’s a point that gets lost in the conversation right now,” he said. “Especially since Oct. 7, there have been these misconceptions about Israel and what it means to be Israeli — people think of Israel as a monolith, when really it’s a mosaic.”
With additional reporting by Ben Sales.
